Fortnum & Mason announces 2021 Food and Drink Awards shortlist

Fortnum & Mason has announced the shortlists for the 2021 Food and Drink Awards, with Grace Dent, Calum Franklin and James Rebanks among the authors chosen.

The awards celebrate the best writers and publishers working in food and drink. They are now in their ninth year and judged by an independent panel of expert judges, chaired by chef proprietor of Murano, Angela Harnett.

The winners will be announced at a reception at Fortnum & Mason, The Royal Exchange, on 13th July.

In contention for the best food book is Caroline Eden, who contributes to the travel, food and arts pages of the Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement. Her book Red Sands: Reportage and Recipes Through Central Asia, from Hinterland to Heartland (Quadrille) won the André Simon Award 2020 for best food book. It is up against Tim Hayward's Loaf Story: A Love-letter to Bread (Quadrille). Hayward is restaurant reviewer for the Financial Times, a presenter on Radio 4's "The Food Programme" and a regular panellist on "The Kitchen Cabinet". He won the Fortnum & Mason Food Writer of the Year for 2014. Farmer James Rebanks is also vying for the prize with English Pastoral: An Inheritance (Allen Lane) which was named the Sunday Times Nature Book of the Year. shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, and longlisted for both the Rathbones Folio prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.

Competing for debut food book is the Guardian restaurant critic Grace Dent, with her book Hungry (Mudlark) which traces her story from growing up eating beige food to becoming one of the much-loved voices on the British food scene. It is up against food writer Mark Riddaway's Borough Market: Edible Histories (Hodder & Stoughton), a series of essays telling the surprising stories of some of the everyday ingredients found at London's Borough Market. Miranda York, is also in contention for editing a collection of food writing, including memoir, essays, short stories and poems in The Food Almanac: Recipes and Stories for a Year at the Table (Pavilion Books).

The shortlists for book authors in full:

Food Book
Caroline Eden: Red Sands: Reportage and Recipes Through Central Asia, from Hinterland to Heartland (Quadrille Publishing Ltd)
Tim Hayward: Loaf Story: A Love-letter to Bread, with Recipes (Quadrille Publishing Ltd)
James Rebanks: English Pastoral: An Inheritance (Allen Lane)

Debut Food Book
Grace Dent: Hungry (Mudlark)
Mark Riddaway: Borough Market: Edible Histories (Hodder & Stoughton)
Miranda York: The Food Almanac: Recipes and Stories for a Year at the Table (Pavilion Books)

Cookery Book
Ravinder Bhogal: Jikoni (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Olia Hercules: Summer Kitchens (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Martin Nordin: Fire, Smoke, Green: Vegetarian Barbecue, Smoking and Grilling Recipes (Hardie Grant)
Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley: Falastin: A Cookbook (Ebury Press)

Debut Cookery Book
Durkhanai Ayubi: Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen (Murdoch Books)
Amy Chung and Emily Chung: The Rangoon Sisters: Recipes from our Burmese Family Kitchen (Ebury Press)
Calum Franklin: The Pie Room (Bloomsbury Absolute)

Drink Book
Jane Anson: Inside Bordeaux (Berry Bros. & Rudd Press)
Fiona Beckett: How To Drink Without Drinking (Kyle Books / Octopus)
Victoria James: Wine Girl (Little Brown Book Group / Fleet imprint)

Debut Drink Book
Bert Blaize and Claire Strickett: Which Wine When (Ebury Press)
Professor David Nutt: Drink? (Yellow Kite)
Cas Oh: CO SPECS: Recipes & Histories of Classic Cocktails (Cazerac Publishing)